New Delhi: The Congress on Monday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate action against the suspected Indian tax evaders who feature in the “Paradise Papers” leak, including one of his ministers, and put the entire facts before the Supreme Court bench overseeing black money investigations.

The Congress also demanded the resignation of Minister Jayant Sinha.

“Will the Prime Minister show the courage of conviction to hand over this entire information to the bench of Supreme Court that is looking at action against black money holders? Will the ‘Compromised Bureau of Investigation’ (CBI) and ED (Enforcement Directorate) take action?” Congress Spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

The “Paradise Papers” are a set of 13.4 million leaked financial documents from law firm Appleby on investments of major multi-national corporations (MNCs) and that of well known individuals in India and abroad in tax havens.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung obtained the documents and subsequently shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The Indian Express newspaper carried out the investigation in the case of 714 Indian links, which include Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha and BJP Rajya Sabha MP R.K. Sinha.

The leaked papers allegedly reveal that Jayant Sinha was a director in a US company D. Light Design that has a subsidiary of the same name in Cayman Islands. This subsidiary raised a loan of US$3 million. A loan agreement dated December 31, 2012 was signed with Jayant Sinha as a signatory and a director.

Surjewala said that Jayant Sinha concealed this information of being a director of D. Light Design in his declaration to the Election Commission as also to the Lok Sabha Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office.

He said that Jayant Sinha continued as a director of D. Light Design even after being elected as an MP in May 2014 and “continued to receive money and shares” of D. Light Design during this period.

“Jayant Sinha also refuses to disclose the various financial documents that he has signed for or on behalf of Omidyar Network. He is or has been a director of various other companies. Do these companies have any connection to any offshore entities like the Omidyar Network?,” the Congress leader said.

While Jayant Sinha has explained his position through a series of tweets, R.K. Sinha, when confronted by media, wrote on a piece of paper that he is on a “maun vrat” (vow of silence) for seven days for religious reasons.

Surjewala said that R.K. Sinha and his wife Rita Kishore Sinha are owners of an offshore company called ‘SIS Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd’ (SAPHL) in Malta, a tax haven.

He further said that another company called ‘SIS International Holding Ltd’ (SIHL) is incorporated in the offshore tax haven of British Virgin Islands and owns 39,99,999 shares of SAPHL.

“R.K. Sinha neither disclosed this in his election affidavit nor to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat…Is the non-disclosure not an electoral offence? Did the BJP and the Modi government not know about all these offshore tax haven based transactions?” Surjewala demanded to know.

He said that Prime Minister Modi’s “so-called” fight against black money and corruption remains a “complete flop” as it failed to take action in the Panama Papers leak where around 500 names emerged, including those of persons linked to the BJP.

(IANS)

New Delhi: China on Monday objected to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s first visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying her tour of the “disputed area” is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the region.

On Sunday, Sitharaman visited forward army posts in remote Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China to take stock of the defence preparedness.

“As to Indian Defence Minister visit to Arunachal Pradesh, you must be very clear about China’s position,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing.

“There is a dispute on the eastern section of the China-India boundary. So this visit by the Indian side to the disputed area is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity of the relevant region,” she said in a response to a question.

The Indian side should work with the Chinese side to make contribution to properly revolving the issue through dialogue and create enabling environment and conditions, she said.

“Hope India will work with China for the shared goal, seek a solution acceptable to both sides and accommodate our concerns in a balanced way,” she said.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet and routinely objects to top Indian officials’ visit to the area.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China stretches to 3,488 km. Both sides have held 19 rounds of talks by the Special Representatives to resolve the dispute.

Sitharaman had visited Nathu La area on the India-China border in Sikkim last month and greeted the People’s Liberation Army soldiers across the border.

(PTI)

Chennai: Rains continued to lash this metropolis and neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur besides other regions of Tamil Nadu, even as the MeT department forecast more rainfall due to a low pressure area persisting in the Bay of Bengal.

Commuters had a harrowing time due to delayed services of buses and trains and severe traffic snarls. Mild rainfall was recorded in some areas in the state, moderate in others and heavy in some pockets.

Schools and colleges, closed since October 31, were shut Saturday as well and several university exams were postponed. The state-level National Talent Search Exam scheduled for today was deferred to November 18.

Civic authorities, including corporation officials, district collectors (Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur) coordinated relief work.

Power supply was suspended in inundated areas such as parts of MKB Nagar in North Chennai, pockets of Madipakkam in South Chennai and Karapakkam off Porur in Western Chennai to ensure safety.

Netizens posted updates about traffic diversions and inundated areas on social media and volunteers distributed food packets and water in affected areas of Nanmangalam and Pallikaranai here.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami had Friday visited many waterlogged parts of the city and its suburbs, insisting that his government was working on a “war-footing”. He was accompanied by his deputy O Panneerslevam and senior officials.

Meanwhile, a Met bulletin said the low pressure area over southwest Bay of Bengal, adjoining Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu coast and the associated cyclonic circulation extending upto 3.1 km above mean sea level continued to persist.

With the northeast monsoon active in the state and neighbouring Puducherry, Chennai city (Nungambakkam) recorded 65.8 mm of rainfall while suburban Meenambakkam registered 62 mm rains in 24 hours ending 8.30 am today.

The coastal district of Nagapattinam in the Cauvery delta zone recorded 2 cm rain and Karaikal in Puducherry one cm rain from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm Friday. Comprehensive updates on rainfall for other regions till this morning are awaited.

The Met department said rain or thundershowers were likely to occur at many places over coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and at a few places over interior Tamil Nadu.

Heavy rain at isolated places was very likely over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, it said.

A release from the railways said showers caused track “circuit based signalling to fail” due to water logging in Chennai Division, “affecting punctuality” between Kodambakkam- St Thomas Mount stations in the southern sector from 9 pm yesterday and it was restored at 9.50 pm.

This was also the case at the northern Tondiarpet and Korukkupet route at 9.35 pm and services were restored at 5.45 am today, the release said.

“Wherever automatic signalling got affected, trains got slightly delayed since they had to be dealt with manual signals instead of automatic signals,” it said.

There were also some power tripping issues in railway routes, including the northern suburban Chennai Beach-Central- Tiruvallur. Power was immediately restored by extending supply from adjacent sub stations within a few minutes, they said.

Saturday morning, a rail fracture was detected between St Thomas Mount and Pallavaram stations and it was attended and set right soon after, they said.

“Except for some minor delays, train services including Chennai Suburban Services are being maintained normally and monitored continuously by railway officials,” they said.

(PTI)

Mumbai: A Shiv Sena leader compiled a booklet titled “Ghotalebaaz BJP” listing “scams” of BJP ministers and distributed it among the party leaders yesterday.

The development could further strain the already frosty relations being shared by the two uncomfortable allies even though a Sena leader today clarified that the booklet was not compiled officially by the Uddhav Thackeray-led party. A Sena leader today said the booklet was distributed after the meeting got over last evening and Thackeray had already left the place by then.

The 56-page booklet lists 20 “national scams” of the “transparent BJP” from the time it came to power at the Centre and also the “scams” that were allegedly “committed by the party leaders, besides the quantum of scams during the BJP’s tenure from 1999 to 2004”.

On the proceedings of the meeting, Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe said Thackeray asked the cadres to further increase the organisational strength upto the booth level and ensure that the loan waiver scheme, announced under the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji maharaj, is implemented without any hiccups.

Interestingly, Sena had recently hit out at the BJP-led state government over “hasty” implementation of the Rs 34022 crore loan waiver scheme for farmers. The BJP-led government in Maharashtra, of which Sena is also a part, recently completed three years in office. Though Sena seems attempting a damage control by stating that the booklet was not an official compilation, the opposition NCP latched onto it to attack the BJP.

“The BJP, which always talks about transparency and high morals, has been bared by its own ally. If the BJP still shares power with the Sena after it has laid bare all the facts about corruption of its ministers. There will be none other than the BJP which will be perceived as being so helpless for power,” Malik told reporters. The Sena has stepped up its attack against its senior ally after the BJP inducted Congress renegade and ex-Shivsainik Narayan Rane’s outfit in the NDA fold.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier confirmed the reports that Rane, who recently left the Congress to float Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, would be inducted into the government in the next Cabinet expansion, expected to take place before the Winter session of Maharashtra Legislature in December. Fadnavis had said that people may not like Sena playing a “double role” in politics, a dig aimed at the frequent attacks by the Sena on the BJP while continuing to be in government.

(PTI)

Ahmednagar: Security officials went into a tizzy when a youth rushed towards Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to give a job application here on Saturday. The youth, who is speech impaired, was detained by the police.

The incident occurred in social crusader Anna Hazare’s native Ralegan-Siddhi village where Fadnavis had gone to lay the foundation stone for the first solar power project under the newly-launched Mukhyamantri Agricultural Solar Feeder Scheme.

As he addressed the gathering with Hazare and others on the stage, a mute young man – later identified as Prashant Mahadev Kanade — lunged towards the stage, bypassing the security cordon.

However, the police immediately caught him and whisked him away from the venue to a waiting van, said L.M. Pawar of Ahmednagar Police Control.

Hazare’s aide Suresh Pathare said the jobless man merely wanted to submit a job application and did not indulge in any kind of violence as speculated in some quarters.

Locals say that Kanade, in his 20s, has been very frustrated after he failed to secure a job anywhere owing to his handicap, though he is ready to work even as a peon or security guard in a bank or any government undertaking.

In January, he reportedly sent an application to the CMO, but did not get any response and took the opportunity to approach Fadnavis at the event today.

(IANS)